Date: Tues, 25 Aug 1998
Score!!!!!!!

Tuesday was the day in North Jersey. Brendan and I checked Sandy Hook first where the swell was ridiculously small. We checked a bunch of breaks before settling on Loch Somethingorother which had about a dozen guys out in solid head-high swell.

We got in the water there right after high tide and stayed in until midafternoon. Wave count wasn't that high, but it was great to be out in real surf again. The break shaped up on the outgoing tide, offering some fine walls and hollow sections in the steady offshore winds. The longboarders were snagging a few 150+ yard rides of the jetty. Those of us on shorter boards had to settle for some fast rights and lefts.

Later we went down to Sea Girt to photograph some A+ beachbreak and then further south to the melee at Manasquan. Brendan and Barney finished the day riding short, choppy waves at Sandy Hook.

Some notes on North Jersey: 7 Presidents has been obliterated by beach replenishment. We'll have to wait until the first few winter storms dredge away the sand before it's rideable again. Roosevelt Ave in Deal was firing. Hefty rights and a crowd of about 20. Sea Girt was perfection and Manasquan was filled in with sand. Until that sorts itself out skip it -- there are much better spots to surf in North Jersey.

That was the best swell I've seen in this godforsaken summer and all of you who weren't on it .... well, better luck next time.

Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1998
bonnie's quick exit nixed plans for ri. caught pretty good, overhead rm2 in the am on saturday, but saturday pm at demos was blown out mush infested by a dozen jetskiers.

stayed in town sunday

Thu, 3 Sep 1998
did the dawn patrol yesterday. up before the sun in brooklyn; arrived at lido as sol was climbing over the horizon. bad current at lido: watched two guys struggle without getting to the lineup. checked lincoln too. nice head-high peaks with about 12 guys on it. eventually picked a spot between roosevelt blvd and the lido hotel (or the nipple building, as some of us know it). there was a nice peak, not too badly marred by the east wind, breaking in short rights and longer lefts. only four guys out. caught plenty of waves, duckdived a few mackers and squeezed into one tiny barrel before it closed over me.

is it worth getting up at 5 am and fighting the traffic back to nyc? absolutely. see ou next time there's a swell.

ps what's the story with the flying seal servers?

Date: Thu, 17 Sep 1998
>Any of you beside Kiko have been surfing in Australia? I'd like to hear >about your experience down there, localism, sharks, waves, ...

m.,
i learned to surf in australia -- a little town in queensland called caloundra. it was idyllic then. miles of empty beaches dotted with a few rock reefs and headlands and plenty of swell pouring in from the south. i'm told that caloundra and the region called the sunshine coast has seen some heavy development since i was there almost 20 years ago. i reckon they still get some swell though.

aussie surfers can be pretty aggro, especially around the cities. but, being aussies, they're also macho and would sooner drink american beer than drop in on a sheila (girl).

sharks? i've seen a few there. and a diver i knew reported seeing herds of hundreds of hammerheads while flying over the barrier reef, but i don't recall any reports of surfers getting chowed in the year i was there.
the waves and that beautiful coastline are the best reasons to go. if you've got a chance to surf there, don't bother asking questions. just go.

Mon, 28 Sep 1998
Subject: Re: CS Journal More Real than Caught Inside

K, You know you're a surf fanatic when you start picking out waves from the background of nonsurfing movies. A guy I surf with in Montauk swears he's gonna surf Ireland cause he saw humongous swell in one of the scenic shots of Ryan's Daughter.

Thanks for reading the CS Journal. I think I started writing it because I thought I was the only idiot trying to surf in New York. Since then I've met some other idiots who share this compulsion. It's good to know there are other people out there who share a similar bond to the ocean, even if it's that bitch the Northatlantic.

Yea, Duane does come off as a bit of a dilletante. On the other hand, he scored a mainstream success writing about a cliquish little subculture, so you've got to give him some credit. For my money, though, William Finnegan's two-part article in the New Yorker is still the mark to beat for surf writing.

Probably the best I could hope for CitySurfer is that some Internet historian rescues the files from a server a hundred years from now and realizes it's an important historical document in fin de siecle NYC. Then my pointless accounts get elevated to the level of Sam Pepy's journal and my rudderless life takes on new meaning in retrospect. Meanwhile, I'll just keep writing about my obsession.

Hope the Atlantic's been treating you well lately.

October 6
Weekend just past at Montauk was beautiful. Lake Atlantic was its placid self, but water, weather and crew were all fine. Kooks Cristina F. and Keith T. posted for the wilderness experience.

Waves were elusive, but Keith was ripping at the bars in the Memory Motel and the Shagwog. He can give you the play-by-play. I've got to go rinse out my wetsuit now.

October 8
Last glance at Navy wave models showed what looked like a decent easterly swell coming in for the weekend. Interested in taking a drive out to Montauk early saturday am? Sort of a quick repeat of last wknd except con olas.

October 12
>I know, we've chased it two times in his beater. Got it good during Bonnie. >Hey Rob, when can we see the pics from that day?

Bonnie pics are best I've ever taken of the East Coast. I'll post them to CitySurfer by the end of the month.

We scored on the East End action this past weekend. Christina and I surfed the Overlook off of Old Montauk Highway Saturday arvo on the dropping tide. It was peaky, but well shaped by the offshore breeze. Swell was solid head-high to head+. Walls shaped up as tide dropped out. Got about a half-dozen good rides before getting swotted inside. Repaired to the beach to hang with Ruby Jane, Christina's dog, and watch CF grinding away in an effort to get outside. She never made it out, but good effort and no shame -- a lot of guys never made it to the lineup either.

Camped near the pillboxes in a driving rain that night and awoke to near perfect 4' swell breaking over a rock/sand reef. Same spot we surfed last week, Keith, except that bastard rock you were slaloming around was just a boil in this swell. Lots of sweet rights and lefts with only one other guy out.

Afternoon session Sunday was at Ditch with everybody else. Snagged a few good peaks before the crowd got too thick. After her nap -- brought on by the tofu dogs (raw?!), or maybe it was the sweet-potato quesadilla -- Cristina paddled out to shred the inside section at Ditch.

After showering off at the municipal lot, we saw the most amazing rainbow -- a vibrant double arc rising from somewhere near Shagwong Point and touching down again about 10 miles NE of the Point. The wave gods were smiling.